Gossamer Falls

by European P. Douglas

  “Those phones are going to start ringing soon,” he said to Allgood, “and we’ll be stuck here a while.”

  “Ms Dern here can handle it I’m sure,” Allgood said, smiling at Dern as though to instill his confidence in her.

  “Ms Dern is not a member of the police department,” Garrick said, “Anyone who calls here can ask to speak to a law enforcement officer and she can’t do anything about it.”

  “No one else will know she doesn’t work here,” Allgood said, “They’ll just assume she does when she answers the phone.”

  “I don’t want to be lying to anyone,” Tammy piped up and both men looked at her.

  “We’re not asking you to lie,” Allgood said, his best politician patter.

  “Yes, we are,” Garrick said. “When a citizen of this town calls the Sheriff's Office, they are entitled to be answered by a member of the police.”

  “Well why don’t you just make her a member of the police then?” Allgood said angrily and throwing his hands in the air. Garrick looked for a moment like he was going to snap something back but held his lip and answered calmly,

  “I don’t have that authority.” This brought a smile to Allgood’s face, and he looked to Tammy and then to Garrick like he had great news for them both. Tammy and Garrick exchanged a nervous glance.

  “Deputy Garrick, as all other members of the Gossamer Fall’s Law Enforcement are unaccounted for, I am using my power as Mayor to appoint you as Sheriff effective immediately!” His grin was growing by the second. “Now, as Sheriff you have the power to hire staff, and I think Ms Dern here would be perfect for the job!”

  “I already have a job!” Tammy cried out.

  Garrick looked shocked but at the same time determined.

  “I’m going to need some deputies,” he said.

  “I’ll get you some men this morning who would be perfect for the role,” Allgood smiled back at him.

  The phone rang, a shrill interruption to the fast confusion in the Sheriff’s Office. Tammy hesitated a moment and then decided to answer it. Whoever was at the other end could not be blamed for what she was going through right now.

  “Hello, Sheriff’s Office,” she said. Allgood smiled and nodded to her,

  “See, she’s a natural,” he said to Garrick. Garrick wasn’t listening to Allgood; he was more concerned with what was going on over the phone. Something else very bad had happened. He could hear the excited tone down the line and saw Tammy’s face white over and her eyes widen. He waited for her to say something back.

  “OK, sit tight, the Sheriff will be with you in a few minutes!” Tammy said and hung up the phone.

  “What is it?” Garrick asked.

  “A couple staying at the hotel were murdered last night. Emily Sounding found the bodies when she went in to make up the room.” Tammy burst into tears as she relayed this, and Allgood’s good cheer suddenly washed away.

  “Holy shit,” he said quietly looking at the phone on the table. “What the hell is going on around here?”

  “I better get over there,” Garrick said, heading for the door, “When that lazy asshole assistant of yours gets here, tell him to wait till I get back. We might have to come up with a new plan in light of this.”

  “This is bad,” Allgood was saying, not seeming to hear Garrick at all. The mayor paced the floor thinking, “Those State men will be here this morning too, and we don’t need this going on at the same time!”

  “I don’t give a damn about those scientists,” Garrick said, “You’ll have to deal with them yourself today. I’m going to be swamped going over to the hotel and then trying to find out what the hell happened with the Sheriff and Deputy Sanders.”

  “Yes, yes,” Allgood said, “I’ll deal with them. You go do what you need to do.” He seemed completely distracted, and Garrick rolled his eyes and looked to Tammy.

  “Are you alright to stay here a while or do you need to go home?” She was glad to be asked and had Lawrence not been in the cell down the hall, she might have opted to go home to bed for a few hours.

  “I’ll keep the coffee pot filled and the phone lines running,” she smiled.

  “Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’m sorry you got wrapped up in all this, but I’m sure we’ll get it sorted and you’ll be free again soon.” Garrick’s face was sincere, and Tammy appreciated his thanks.

  “You better get going up to the hotel,” she said. “They must be really scared up there by now.”

  “They’re not the only ones,” the new Sheriff said, taking up his hat, nodding goodbye and stepping outside.

  Tammy had only turned back to the table when the door opened again and she turned to see the top half of Garrick’s body leaning in,

  “I don’t suppose I have to tell you not to let Lawrence out of his cell or to let anyone else in there?” he asked. She smiled and waved him away.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

  There was one exception to this in Tammy’s mind and that was Doctor Hanrahan. She was going to call him as soon as Allgood was gone, which she didn’t think would be too long now that Garrick had left.

  Chapter 28

  Maggie Glymer had heard about the failed water test down by the lake and also of the men from the state capital due to come down. What she wasn’t sure about was when they were due to arrive and, more importantly, what would happen if these scientists didn’t know what the clouds were or where they came from? These were questions that needed answering, and no amount of sitting at Diane Gaughren’s kitchen table and talking about it was going to answer them. Sheriff Schall was the one doing all the work about town, so Maggie decided it was Mayor Allgood who should be answering her questions. With this in mind, she set out early that morning for the mayor’s office, determined to find out if there was a possibility she would have to leave her home in the near future.

  It wasn’t too long a walk but still it was invigorating to be out and about. Her fears of being struck by one of the clouds had been overcome by her cabin fever at home. Since the night of the clouds drifting in, Maggie had either been at home, or else in Diane’s house. It was good to see that the rest of the town was still standing. People were about - not in great numbers - and each of them kept a wary eye on the skyline, but it looked like a start back towards normalcy.

  The mayor’s office was quieter than Maggie had ever seen it (she’d been here twice before over the years), and she was surprised to find that Mayor Allgood’s assistant was not at his desk when she came in. Mr Gough was usually the first line of defence when trying to talk to the mayor and she had been expecting to have to bulldoze her way past him this morning. His empty desk stopped her in her tracks, and she had to admit she was a little disappointed they were not going to spar.

  Low voices drew Maggie’s ear, and she saw the door to Allgood’s office was very slightly ajar. No doubt it was Allgood and Mr Gough she was hearing talking. Creeping closer with the intent of slipping past Gough when he came out, Maggie pressed to the wall by the side of the door frame. She cocked an ear and listened, not actually interested in what was being said, but listening out for those tones of voice or words said that would indicate the conversation was about to end. A few sentences had passed before Maggie realised it wasn’t Gough in there at all. She didn’t know who they were.

  “Remember, you act officious all the time. Anyone tries to question you, you just stonewall them, tell them you can’t discuss your findings with anyone other than the mayor, you got it?” Mayor Allgood’s voice came. Maggie didn’t like the sound of this and she listened more intently now.

  “Yes, Sir,” someone said, and then another voice said,

  “You want us done today or drag it out a couple of days?”

  “Better to get it done in one day. Go visit the sites of the clouds and then come back here this evening about six. I’ll tell everyone what your findings are then, and we can get the fire department axes on it first thing in the morning,” Allgood said.

 
Maggie was furious at what she was hearing; these men from the State capital were just paying lip service to the whole thing. They were only going to do what the mayor said! Then she shook her head at her own stupidity. She had been so wrapped up in the news of the scientists coming to town she had just gone with that idea now on hearing them. It was obvious, however, that these men were not from the State at all. The mayor must have called in a few men he knew from out of town to come play the roles so he could keep everything quiet much longer.

  Standing out from the wall, Maggie straightened out her clothes and was just about to burst in there to confront these men when she had a change of heart. This was no good. It would be better if she took this information to the Sheriff; she knew he was very happy men from out of town were coming to investigate, and he would kick up a much better fuss about the mayor's falsehoods than she would be able to. Yes, going to the Sheriff’s Office was the best way to play this. But it was hard to walk away from what she was hearing. How she wanted to go in there and tear them a new a-hole! She thought about Frank and what he would do were he here now and she smiled. She wasn’t Frank, though, and she would never be able to say the things he would have. Perhaps Sheriff Schall would, though. Maggie walked quietly away, the mayor and his cronies never knowing she’d been there to hear them.

  Back out on the street, the first thing Maggie saw was one of the cordoned off areas where one of the clouds had landed just across from the mayor’s office. It had landed on top of a car and the owner had not tried to move it. She wondered if this was the first place Allgood wanted the firemen’s axes fall, so he could watch from his window to see if it was working without having to be down among the people and their questions if it didn’t. How she loathed that man right now.

  Chapter 29

  Newly appointed Sheriff Garrick drove through the thick mist on the road out of town towards the hotel. The mist had come in off the lake during the night, but he thought it would have completely dissipated by now with the heat of the rising sun. It had mostly lifted from town, and he wondered if it always accumulated out this way before evaporating. He hadn’t noticed in the past, but then mist hadn’t ever made him nervous in the past either.

  Never in his life had Garrick had so many things on his mind and, hell, what things there were pressing on him! He’d joined the Sheriff's Department after a brief stint in a factory. Assembly line work didn’t suit him, and the outdoors life of a Sheriff's Deputy looked appealing. He never had any aspirations of being Sheriff and would have been happy cruising around, helping folks out, and tossing the odd drunk in a cell to cool down after the bars closed on Friday or Saturday nights. And that’s the way it had been working out until a few days ago.

  Now, landed squarely on his plate was the aftermath of the deadly cloud drift, four or five missing men (at least one of them either dead or missing a lot of blood) and two murder victims! That was a hundred years of work for a small-town Sheriff’s Department, and he had it all in one go!

  Garrick’s cruiser turned through the entrance to the Clear View Hotel, and he noted the number of cars in the carpark. A couple more than he would have thought at this time of year. The events he was here to investigate might ruin this place once word gets out - if the clouds weren’t enough to keep people away from Gossamer Falls already.

  Charles Landy appeared on the front steps as Garrick walked up. Garrick had met him before but wouldn’t consider that he knew the man. Landy’s eyes were red and his body moved jerkily.

  “Thank God you came.” he said, taking Garrick’s hand in his own two and shaking.

  “I’m sorry it’s under such poor circumstances,” Garrick said. “Do you know who did this?” he asked quietly.

  “We think so,” Landy said, “He registered last night as Edwards Dobbins and he’s the only person unaccounted for this morning. His bed wasn’t slept in last night.”

  “You think he registered under a false name?”

  “I do,” Landy nodded and then forlornly added, “I never asked him for any identification.” Garrick felt bad for him; he knew this fact would stick with him for years to come and he would use it to blame himself.

  “Even if you had checked his identification and he left, someone would most likely still be dead at his hand by now,” Garrick assured him, though he didn’t add that it would have been in some other town and not his problem.

  “I don’t know,” Landy said doubtfully.

  “Trust me,” Garrick said and then changing tack asked, “You said everyone was accounted for except this Dobbins character?”

  “Yes, everyone is in the bar. We felt it was safest if we all stayed together.” Landy nodded to the door of the bar, but Garrick stopped by the reception desk and said,

  “That was a good idea. I’m going to need to talk to everyone individually, but you can give me an overview of what happened now, if that’s alright?” Landy looked grim at the retelling, but to his credit he didn’t try shirk the responsibility. He nodded and Garrick asked,

  “Who found the bodies?”

  “Emily Sounding, she works here,” Landy answered, shaking his head in pity for the girl.

  “I know her,” Garrick said, “That must have been awful for her.”

  “It was. She screamed so loud and we all came running. She fainted just as we got to the door, but she hit the ground before I could catch her.” Tears welled in the hotel owner’s eyes.

  “Is she hurt?”

  “No, she’s fine now, physically at least,” Landy corrected himself mid-sentence.

  “Which room is it?”

  “Room twelve on the second floor,” Landy’s voice was shaking and Garrick could tell he didn’t want to go back up there.

  “Is the door open?”

  “No, I locked it before we came down here,” Landy said, sounding apologetic but not knowing why.

  “I’ll take the key then and you can go back in to your guests,” Garrick said. It wasn’t ideal, but he couldn’t call on backup and had to do this alone. As if reading his mind, though, Landy shook his head.

  “I’ll give you the key no problem, but I don’t want anyone wandering around the hotel on their own right now, even a Sheriff’s Deputy.” If only he knew what else was going on far away from this hotel, Garrick thought, but it would be too hard to try to explain in light of recent events.

  “Alright, I better take a look up there before I talk to anyone else,” though it was the last thing he wanted to do. “I’m just going to go in and tell them to stay put until I come back.”

  Garrick entered the bar and five eager faces swivelled his way. He saw Emily’s tear-streaked face first and his heart went out to her. He walked to the table they all sat around and sized each of them up on the way. No one looked like a suspect to him; most showed signs of crying and of the two that didn’t, they looked sick and unnerved - though not in a way he thought was from guilt. They were all terrified; he didn’t blame them. If he could be anywhere else in the world right now, he’d take it.

  “I know you’ve all had quite a shock this morning,” Garrick said, “Especially you, Emily, but I’m going to ask you to stay in here together for a while as I go up and look at the crime scene. I’ll have questions for you all once I’m done with that.” They nodded, but he wasn’t sure how much of it they were hearing. One man seemed to be staring at his badge and taking some comfort from it.

  Now it was time for the bad part.

  Up on the second floor, Sheriff Garrick took the key from Landy and put it in the lock.

  “The door to the room wasn’t forced,” he noted. “How do you think he got in?”

  “There’s a metal box with the spare keys in it down at the reception desk. It was locked this morning with the key in there, but there are some dents in the box now. I think he used a knife to get it open and take the key to let himself into the room.”

  “And then he put it back and locked it again?” This didn’t sound right at all.

  “Tha
t’s what I think,” Landy said, sounding flustered. “No one heard anything, and I don’t think the couple would have let him in if he’d just knocked.”

  “The floor is noisy on the stairs and landing,” Garrick noted. “Does the building make a lot of noise at night?”

  “Yes, settling noises, but they go on all night and can seem loud in the middle of the night when nothing else is happening.” Garrick nodded and then stepped inside the room.

  The smell hit him first and he was almost ready to vomit at once. He covered his mouth and nose.

  “Jesus!” he uttered and then cursed himself for being so unprofessional. He looked at the bed and saw the most awful sight he’d ever seen in his life - and he’d seen a man killed by one of those clouds only a few days ago. It wasn’t just Emily Sounding who was going to have trouble getting over this.

  Chapter 30

  Tammy was glad when Allgood called Derek Gough and told him there was no longer a hurry for him to get down to the Sheriff’s Office. Allgood had done this a couple of minutes after Garrick had left for the hotel and then announced he too was leaving, going to his office to do his own job. The moment his car pulled away from outside, Tammy jumped up and went down the hall to Lawrence’s cell.

  Lawrence lay on the cot on his back, his hands waving in front of him now and then as though trying to fend something off in his fevered nightmares.

  “Lawrence, are you alright? It’s me, Tammy!” she called into him, wishing she could go to him and cradle his head on her lap and try to comfort him.